hack

Registry edit to enable A2DP audio while playing video on Windows Phone 7

November 19, 2011 | By Surur

2-26-07-dr-bt21g A repeated annoyance of some Windows Phone 7 owners is that when using A2DP sound over Bluetooth, this will be disabled when playing video.

Of course the reason for this is somewhat understandable – when decoding video, transcoding sound to the A2DP audio codec takes processor cycles which then lead to sound dropping out or low frame rate for video.

If however you want to take your chances and have an Interop unlocked device or a device with a built-in registry editor like some LG ones, Fabcal has a simple registry edit which will fix the issue.

With your unlocked handset and WP7 root tools or other registry editor, edit:

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Zune\Playback\Video\A2DP\CapsSet1

Change dword value DisableA2DPPLayback from 1 to 0

Reboot immediately afterward and enjoy Bluetooth Stereo Audio playback while watching video.

Note that as the Bluetooth antenna is often the same as the WIFI antenna they can interfere, making the solution better for playing local content than streaming content from the internet.

Read more in this XDA-Dev thread for methods of editing your registry on Windows Phone 7.

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Bootloader hack may bring Android dual-boot to Windows Phones

November 19, 2011 | By Surur

focusdb

It remains to be seen how desired this is, but work by the Dark Forces Team to port the the MAGLDR bootloader to the Samsung Focus may mean Android dual-boot could be coming to certain Windows Phone 7 handsets.

This would result in a similar situation to the HTC HD2, which it seems has been hacked to run every mobile OS under the sun.

The work is being initially done on the Samsung Focus v1.3, but Cotulla writes that the next version will support the Samsung Focus 1.4 and Samsung Omnia 7 also.

Have any of our readers been waiting for this development? Let us know below.

Via Slashgear and WPCentral.com

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Game Review: Kinectimals

November 2, 2011 | By andrewbares

Kinectimals for Windows Phone is a stand-alone game that has optional integration with the Xbox 360 version.

Overall Score: 3/5

Unfortuantely, Kinectimals on WP7 is nothing impressive. Pass it up unless you have young kids or have $2.99 you don’t care about.

Gameplay: 3/5

When you think of Kinectimals, you imagine a fully immersive and intuitive game. When you play Kinectimals on Windows Phone, you don’t experience a single immersive element, even though they could have used the accelerometer and microphone to make it a better game. It’s disappointing. Once you get past that point, the game isn’t that bad, but it also isn’t that great. The game has some entertaining challenges where you either play fetch with your lion, make him jump the rope, or make him do tricks. These are the heart of the game. Fetch is basically a dumbed down version of Paper Toss, and isn’t as fun. The tricks mode is alright but some of the gestures like the Sit gesture doesn’t work well. However, the jump rope is pretty cool and becomes challenging when the speed of the rope rapidly changes. You can also feed your pet lion, clean him, buy him collars and clothes, and buy him new toys. And there’s also the camera mode where you can take a picture and virtually place your lion in it. Overall, the gameplay is interesting, but nothing super fun. Continue reading →

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Tip: Smart work-around allows screen capture from XNA Games also

November 2, 2011 | By Surur

We recently saw the release of a screen capture tool for Windows Phone 7 which allowed screens from silverlight applications to be saved.

The tool did not however work for XNA games, merely producing black pictures.

Nanapho.jp however thought of a creative work-around. By holding down the back button, the screen shots can be taken from the multi-tasking screen, where the OS itself does not seem to have an problem capturing screen shots of games, videos and even the camera viewfinder.

Screen shots are at a reduced size of 432 × 259, but that of course is still perfectly fine for illustrating something on the web, and miles better than taking a photo of the screen.

Read more about this simple ‘hack’ at Nanapho.jp here.

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Homebrew Folders for WP7 Mango released

October 27, 2011 | By Surur

WindowsPhoneHacker have released their promised homebrew hack for Windows Phone 7 which brings Folders to the home screen to unlocked Windows Phone 7 handsets.

The app needs:

Developer/Chevron/etc unlocked phone. This should be less of an issue once ChevronWP7 Labs is released
Windows Phone 7.5 Mango (for the secondary tiles)

Setting up and adjusting the folders need to be done on the desktop, as demonstrated in the video above.

Read more about the setup and download the app, if that is your thing, at WindowsPhoneHacker here.

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Homebrew Start page Folders on Mango demoed

October 24, 2011 | By Surur

Windows Phone Hacker have uploaded this video demo of their folder hack on Windows Phone 7.5.

The hack only needs a developer-unlocked device, and WPH are promising a release soon.

What do our readers think? Let us know below.

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Neat hack to restore Forward and Find in Page to IE9 Mobile

October 22, 2011 | By Surur

Bookmarklets are very useful on the desktop, and it turns out they work equally well in IE9 Mobile.

Gooddaytodie on XDA-Dev has crafted these JavaScript bookmarklets to restore Forward and Find in Page functions removed with the upgrade to Mango.

To add the Forward function:

Forward

Go to Internet Explorer 9 Mobile, tap the “…” to bring up the menu, and tap “add to favorites” (it doesn’t matter which website you do it on)
Change the “Name” field to “Forward” (or to make it stay at the top of the list, use “! Forward”)
Change the “Web address” field to the following code:
javascript:history.forward()

The code for adding find in Page is a bit more complicated, but the procedure is the same.

Find On Page

Go to Internet Explorer 9 Mobile, tap the “…” to bring up the menu, and tap “add to favorites” (it doesn’t matter which website you do it on)
Change the “Name” field to “Find on page” (or to make it stay at the top of the list, use “! Find on page”)

Change the “Web address” field to the following code (use Copy and Paste on your phone!):

javascript:(function(){function G(){var pf=doc.getElementById('pf');var qt=doc.getElementById('qt');if(null==pf){pf=doc.createElement('div');pf.id='pf';var s=pf.style;s.position='absolute';s.zIndex='99';s.top=(scT||scBT)+'px';s.left=(scL||scBL)+'px';s.width='100%';s.backgroundColor='#FFFF00';pf.appendChild(doc.createTextNode('Search: '));qt=doc.createElement('input');qt.id='qt';qt.type='text';pf.appendChild(qt);var sb=doc.createElement('input');sb.type='button';sb.value='Find';sb.onclick=function(){P(qt.value)};pf.appendChild(sb);doc.body.appendChild(pf);}else{pf.style.display='inline';count=0;}}function P(s){document.getElementById('pf').style.display='none';if(s==='')return;var n=srchNode(document.body,s.toUpperCase(),s.length);alert("Found "+count+" occurrence"+(count==1?"":"s")+" of '"+s+"'.");pf.parentNode.removeChild(pf);return n;}function srchNode(node,te,len){var pos,skip,spannode,middlebit,endbit,middleclone;skip=0;if(node.nodeType==3){pos=node.data.toUpperCase().indexOf(te);if(pos>=0){spannode=document.createElement("SPAN");spannode.style.backgroundColor="red";middlebit=node.splitText(pos);endbit=middlebit.splitText(len);middleclone=middlebit.cloneNode(true);spannode.appendChild(middleclone);middlebit.parentNode.replaceChild(spannode,middlebit);++count;skip=1;}}else{if(node.nodeType==1&&node.childNodes&&node.tagName.toUpperCase()!="SCRIPT"&&node.tagName.toUpperCase!="STYLE"){for(var child=0;child<node.childNodes.length;++child){child=child+srchNode(node.childNodes[child],te,len);}}}return skip;}var count=0,scL=0,scT=0,scBL=0,scBT=0;var w=window,doc=document;if(typeof doc.body!='undefined'&&typeof doc.body.scrollLeft!='undefined'){scBL=doc.body.scrollLeft;scBT=doc.body.scrollTop;}if(typeof doc.documentElement!='undefined'&&typeof doc.documentElement.scrollLeft!='undefined'){scL=doc.documentElement.scrollLeft;scT=doc.documentElement.scrollTop;}G();})()

Thanks to LiveSide.net for creating the simple to use instructions. Video demo by 1800pocketpc.com

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Pandora For Windows Phone Proof Of Concept

October 10, 2011 | By Pradeep

Windows Phone and Silverlight developer Justin Angel took some time to make a proof of concept of Pandora Internet radio service working on a Windows Phone devices.

He dissected the Pandora AIR app to know how it works and found that it’s all JSON authentication and MP4′s. This can be easily ported to Windows Phone devices,and to demonstrate that he even did a Proof of concept XAP that clearly shows pandora running on Windows Phone devices.

WPCentral added this video above of the XAP in question. You can even try the XAP here.

Of course this raises the question – if its so easy to support Windows Phone 7 why is Pandora not doing it already …?

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How to Enable Samsung AllShare DLNA app on the Samsung Omnia 7 and Samsung Focus

October 2, 2011 | By Surur

When the Samsung AllShare DLNA app showed up in marketplace we were all pretty excited, but it turned out it did not work on the Samsung Omnia 7, terminating with an error.

It turns out the app is in fact fully functional, suggesting the error was put in place to keep older generation devices out of the equation.

To get access to the app, follow these simple steps discovered by monwindowsphone.com.

Download the application AllShare Samsung
The launch and press the “home” phone before the error message appears
Return the application by holding down the “back” button and using the multitasking
You are now in the application
You have to login to your computer or your TV (set to the first DLNA) and select the media content to your device for viewing

Great news for Samsung Omnia 7 users, as the app clearly works very well, as can be seen in the video, and it does make Samsung look a bit underhanded.

Update: David on twitter says it works on his Samsung Focus also.

Samsung All Share can be found in Marketplace here.

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WindowsPhoneHacker promises enabling Internet Sharing on your Samsung phone is as easy as 1,2,3,4,5

September 29, 2011 | By Surur

WindowsPhoneHacker have simplified the guide for enabling Internet Sharing on your unlocked Samsung Windows Phone 7 handset to 5 easy steps taking 3 minutes.

The steps are:

Download DiagProvXML and Samsung Tools
Deploy both XAPs to your phone
Run DiagProvXML and hold down on the Internet Sharing item, press Execute
Close (press Back) DiagProvXML, and run Samsung Tools. Press Apply to set Auto Data Config.
Your phone will reboot, and everything should work from there on it.

Find the download links at WPH here.

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Hack to enable internet sharing on the Samsung Omnia 7 now available

September 29, 2011 | By Surur

Thanks to XDA-Developer member OndraSterthere is now a hack available to enable internet sharing on Samsung Omnia 7’s running Mango.

Interestingly the hack confirms Microsoft’s assertion about drivers, as the hack does not work on HTC handsets. The hack also reveals that there is vestigial support for Bluetooth tethering, but that this does not work.

The hack also disables the phone from checking for carrier provisioning for tethering, but this of course does not mean you will still not be charged.

The hack is a bit too complex to explain here, involving unlocking the handset, provisioning the device, replacing files and editing the registry, so really only for expert users.

Head over to XDA- Developers for full instructions.

Thanks RyoTGZ for the tip.

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HTC Mango ROMs leak for the HTC Mozart, HTC HD7, HTC 7 Trophy and Verizon Trophy and HTC 7 Pro leak on XDA-Dev

September 8, 2011 | By Surur

With the date of the Mango update rolling on closer, it seems harder and harder for HTC to keep a lid on their ROMs.

A pile of ROMs for HTC handsets have just leaked on XDA Dev, including for the HTC Mozart, HTC HD7, HTC 7 Trophy and Verizon Trophy and HTC 7 Pro.

RUU_Gold_S_HTC_Europe_3.02.401.01_Radio_5.69.09.29 a_22.50.50.21_Signed_GOLD_RELEASE.exe
RUU_Mozart_S_HTC_Europe_4.06.401.00_5.69.09_RELEAS E.exe
RUU_Mozart_S_HTC_RUS_4.06.411.00_5.69.09_RELEASE.e xe
RUU_Schubert_S_HTC_Europe_4.05.401.02_Radio_5.69.0 9.29a_22.50.50.21_Signed_SCHUBERT_RELEASE.exe
RUU_Spark_S_HTC_Europe_4.06.401.00_5.69.09_RELEASE .exe
RUU_Spark_W_S_VERIZON_WWE_2.01.605.04_2K_new_parti tion_RELEASE.exe

Hackers do however have to be careful, as any devices with HSPL installed will be bricked if they attempt to install the ROMs. Read the associated thread for the solution to the issue.

We suggest instead however that users hang on for the official push, which cant be far away.

Via Pocketnow.com

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DFT and Orange Team together create HTC HD2 ROM which can be updated normally by Microsoft

August 27, 2011 | By Surur

The Dark Forces Team and Orange Team have combined their forces and achieved the seemingly impossible – they have created a ROM for the HTC HD2 which can be updated normally like any other Windows Phone 7 handset over the Zune desktop client.

Beyond this the ROM also retains Root and ChevronWP7 status, meaning users are both free to edit the registry and side-load applications.

Lastly the ROM also allows custom packages to be side-loaded via Zune, making for the ultimate custom ROM machine.

The teams report this hack could be a model for all other Windows Phone 7 handsets, throwing the door open for wide customization without the fear of losing future updates from Microsoft

At present the process of updating the HTC HD2 is long, complicated and tedious, and is not recommended for casual users. It will also lock your SD card to Windows Phone 7, which can only be undone by a Nokia N97, which would prevent dual booting with Android for example. The teams are working on a simpler method, and suggest casual users hang tight for this.

Braver users can read more in this xda-developers thead.

Thanks Milad for the tip.

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